Adventure Log: 2/18/17

Morgana's report to the Circle of Twilight

I still believe the Circle should start paying attention to the attacks on the Wall. Santucary is paying lots of gold to craftsmen and guards to keep undead from slipping through. Surely the Circle can spare a few druids to lend a hand.

As for the state of other matters, the Greyholds, the dwarf and I began to clear out the rest of Anzi’s mansion. We met the brothers in their shop in the bazaar and on our way, we saw a city guard stop a mugging. During the struggle he dropped a scroll and left before we could return it. The wizard and I could not translate the scroll, so we took it to Mellot’s Scribes to have the scroll deciphered.

Mellot, a hefty and haughty man, had a young girl named Geneva translate what he said was an ancient Yuan-ti dialect. The party paid him 25 gold and I gave him the mansion address to return the scroll to me when it was ready.

As it was Market Day, we went back to the bazaar. Parades were bustling and slaves were bought on the block.

I noticed a man whipping his fine brown and white horse over and over again as he lined the horse up for a race. I tried to buy the horse from him, but he wouldn’t and whipped the horse again.

The horse had high odds of winning, but fell in exhaustion just before the finish line. She didn’t finish the race and had lashes on her back. The man and I got in an altercation, and the watch stepped in. I went to jail and the abuser went free.

The dwarf and Greyholds tried to find out who the man was so he might drop the charges against me. They found that he was the nephew of Hanse, a prominent slaveholder that lived on the other side of the Wall.

They went out to his cottage and met the man’s gardener, whom often accompanies Hanse. Inside the cottage, the men heard harrowing shrieks. The gardener said his master was busy and would not let them in, so they tried to offer the drow elf as a trade (of course a ploy to speak with Hanse). They agreed to meet at the Vulgar Unicorn to complete the trade.

The Greyholds and Flynt then hid outside the gate and waited for the men to leave. As they were waiting, they saw the Hell Hounds Zalbar and Razkuli enter the estate. Razkuli went inside and came out moments later, appearing shaken and nodded to Zalbar. The pair then left and went back on the road to Santucary.

The Greyholds jumped the fence and as the dwarf was trying to find a way over the fence, the two Hell Hounds came back, this time with what looked like a rolled up rug. Flynt tried to hide, but they spotted him and told him to leave his weapons and back to town.

He did and tried to find Tempest to tell him of Razkuli and Zalbar’s suspicious activity. He could not find him at the Hounds’ barracks nor the Aphrodisiac, a place of harlotry and drinking. As he went to check the Vulgar Unicorn, Enas as an old woman led Geneva, the scribe girl, to Frostbeard.

Geneva translated the scroll and it ordered the assassination of Prince Kadakithis. Frostbeard tried to promise the girl to keep quiet but she insisted that if Mellot asked her about it, she would have to tell him.

The dwarf then went to the prince’s palace. As it was dawn and the prince was still asleep, the dwarf had to convince his steward, a man in a red robe, to wake him. The dwarf told the prince of the plot involving a member of the city guard and said that I could uphold his claim, and I did.

We pointed out the member of the city guard that dropped the scroll and the Hounds took the guard in for questioning. Prince Kadakithis rewarded us for uncovering the plot and said he was indebted to us. At this time, the prince was concerned about the whereabouts of Tempest.

The dwarf and I went back to the cottage, where the gardener was out trimming the hedges and a recognizable wail came from inside the house. Flynt and I feared the worst had met the Greyholds so we continued the ruse to sell the elf, who agreed to the plan. We told the gardener for he and his master to meet us at the mansion at 8 p.m. The gardener agreed.

I then went to Enas to seek help against Hanse. Enas revealed Hanse’s real name was Tevar and he was a practicing necromancer. He often slaughters people and studies their anatomy. Enas said he would send out word to a friend to aid us against Tevar.

Back at the mansion, the dwarf rested and Alexandria and I prepared for Tevar’s arrival. In the afternoon, a bugbear named Zook showed up at the door. Enas had sent him.

Tevar then arrived with his gardener. As expected, the deal went south and a fight broke out. We defeated the pair and Zook went on his way. The three of us went back to the cottage.

There, we found Morgan and Tempest chained up in a room. Tempest’s guts were spilling out of him, but he seemed unhurt. Morgan was barely alive. I healed him and he told us that Merick was devoured by zombies after Tevar killed him. Tevar’s nephew died in the struggle.

I freed Tempest and the dwarf told him about the plot against the prince. The Hound went back to the palace then.

Upon searching the house, I found many tomes about the undead, necromancy and other dark arts. The Circle may find these useful to battle the monsters.

One book of note was the Journal of Talgarth. It was about a knight’s journey to find the monks of the Golden Circle. Does the Circle know more about this knight or the monks?

As we got back in town in town, we saw another work crew set out for the Wall and Razkuli and Zalbar’s heads were on spikes.

The party rested and then we set out to clean up the rest of the mansion. Enas sent two more adventurers, a barbarian bearman …. and a paladin halfing Burl. We discovered more blue hawk masked men in the kitchen, zombies and ghouls and some of Anzi’s bandits guarding a portal. The last bandit told us there were also prisoners in a room upstairs. We found them and helped them return to their homes. Most of them were from Santucary, but one named Jolen was captured in Drakklafell. The dwarf paid for his passage home.

That night, two visitors came into Morgan’s shop, one Anna Adele of Morphus and the other Edwenna Dunn. Both were in search of the Journal of Talgarth. Morgan told both he would search for the tome.

Later, another horde of undead attacked the Wall, killing the work party that left that morning.